April 17th - 18th Conference Photos

Todd Hein - Crowe Horwath Sponsor

Todd is a senior manager in the federal tax unit in the Los Angeles office of Crowe Horwath, LLP, a national public accounting firm based in South Bend, Indiana, with offices located throughout the United States. He has practiced in public accounting for over 20 years, specializing in income tax compliance and planning for entertainment industry clients and related service businesses. Todd received his undergraduate degree in Economics from UCLA. and earned a Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University.

Speakers Availability Based on their Production Schedules

B.K. Coposky - Host of the Conference

Have over 20 years of experience in video, audio, film production and special effects.With a creative arts background, Coposky began his career in special effects makeup, working on several feature films including A KISS BEFORE DYING and VERONICA & ME.In 1991, he joined forces with special makeup effects artist Mark Alfrey to co-produce a direct to video feature.

Coposky then founded Hybrid Films, specializing in the development of motion picture projects and successful in packaging and soliciting funds for several feature films and videos ranging in budgets between $100,000 and 8 Mil.In 1992, a feature film he was developing entitled “The Hybrid” was picked up and made into the feature “Within the Rock” produced by Robert Patrick.

Coposky founded Xavier Enterprises LLC in 2005, going back to his theatrical roots, and acted as Technical Director for a number of theatres throughout the country; but with a passion for film and dramatic storytelling, he once again began developing projects.His new feature film production company is now Riwayat Films.

Coposky earned an Associate’s Degree in Media Studies in 1986, and took an educational hiatus to work for 4 years with emotionally disturbed and learning disabled children, incorporating art, video and opera/musical theatre into their daily regimen.He received 3 years of training by the NY Metropolitan Opera Guild during this time.He then went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Arts at New Jersey City University, graduating in 1994.He had the pleasure of regularly visiting the “Charmed” set, and to visit the sets of “Cops & Robbersons”, “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” and work on a number of music videos with Anthony Bongiovi.Coposky then went on to direct his first experimental feature “Within the Wild”, which was a prelude to his upcoming “Cravings” project in development.Riwayat Films,All Rights Reserved 2010

Currently in Preproduction on a Female Vampire Feature based in NYC. And involved as Exec Producer on projects involving A List Talent.

Bios of Our Speakers:

Hal "Corky" Kessler - Entertainment Attorney - Key Note Speaker

Corky has extensive entertainment law, corporate and worldwide entertainment industry experience.Corky regularly speaks on the business and legal aspects of feature film development and tax incentives in connection with the entertainment industry.

Corky has successfully worked with governors and United States Congressmen in several states to implement new laws and federal tax incentives for investments in qualifying film and television projects, which led to Sections 181 and 199 of The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.Corky has also authored a reference book covering such federal and state tax incentives.

Corky has represented several authors and negotiated publishing deals with several major publishers, including Random House and Doubleday.

Corky has also assembled and built winning teams for more than 30 entertainment and other business ventures. He has developed, packaged and executive produced feature films, theatre projects and television projects, including “The Sum of Us,” starring Russell Crowe, which won the Australian Academy Award for Best Film and most currently “Certifiably Jonathan” starring Jonathan Winters, Robin Williams, Howie Mandel, Rob Reiner, Jim Carrey, Sara Silverman, and others.

Corky has participated in seminars and conducted speaking engagements throughout the United States and Canada. Click Herefor Corky's extended Bio and Resume.

Jack Binder - Producer

Jack Binder has been a Producer (Reign Over Me, The Upside of Anger) of quality feature films and television Programs for the past 25 years.

Jack's success can be attributed to his ability to successfully execute simultaneous roles as the responsible Producer charged with financing matters, talent, negotiations, line producer, unit production manager, producer and Director of Second Unit Photography on his movies.

Binder produces for The Walt Disney Company, Columbia Tristar, Lionsgate Films, New Line Cinema and HBO amongst others. Continued

Jim Kendrick - CEO of Seacoast Studios

Jim Kendrick is CEO of Seacoast Studios, a fully integrated ocean-side film production facility on the South West shore of Nova Scotia, Canada (which offers the most aggressive government incentives for television and movie production in the world).

He has a long history in the independent media creation business begun with the indie music eruption which occurred during the introduction of CDs in the mid-1980s, as president of IMPS -- the Independent Music Producers' Syndicate studios and distribution organization.

Purchase of the Seacoast Studios facility with his business partner Mary Barstow of Pennsylvaniae a joint U.S. / Canadian military base -- fulfilled a long-time dream of creating a film production facility specifically designed and operated to host and assist small to medium-budget projects. His experience there and in the preceding 25 years will be shared with conference participants with Jim's characteristically light-hearted yet very focused presentation on alternative financing strategies.Jim's entrepreneurial career has included publication of more than a dozen national business magazines in a variety of industries including music, retailing, entertainment, distribution and horticulture.

Irene Wachsler, CPA

Irene is a managing member of Tobolsky & Wachsler CPA’s and is responsible for the Audit Practice. In addition to taxes, the firm specializes in performing audit / agreed-upon procedures for the Massachusetts film tax credits and has performed a number of agreed-upon procedures for productions including motion pictures, television series, documentaries and commercials.

Irene also performs audit, review, and compilation services for the not-for-profit sector. Irene received her Masters degree in Business Administration from Babson College. Irene worked at Deloitte & Touche LLP. She also worked in the high-tech, banking and non-profit sectors.

Rachel Kadushin

Rachel Kadushin is currently producing two films: one that she wrote and one that her producing partner, Patrick Salmon wrote. Previously Rachel produced a direct to DVD documentary short that got international distribution, and published two comic books that she co-created and wrote which got national distribution. Additionally Rachel produced and directed a staged reading series of one of her feature scripts, was an associate producer for an off-Broadway one act festival, has had short stories published, edited and wrote in corporate communications.

Rachel will offer insight into how to put together the prospectus, projections, and team that will give your Film Package credibility!

Vinit Parmar

Vinit Parmar, Esq., began his film work as a sound mixer in New York fifteen years ago after making the transition from an established legal career of seven years. He enjoys teaching film production as a full-time faculty in the Film Department at Brooklyn College as part of the City University of New York, and he makes documentary films. His award-winning documentary Black Waters, received the Katherine Knight Award for Best Documentary on Pollution (2008 EarthVision International Film Festival) and Exceptional Environmental Vision Award (2008 Sacramento International Film Festival). He is currently under production for Quest For Light.

Yan Vizinberg - Co-founder of Persona Films, NYC

An award-winning commercial director and cinematographer with over a decade of production experience, Yan has recently wrapped production on his directorial debut feature, “Cargo.” Yan has directed television commercials for major international brands, such as Lufthansa, DIRECTV and Aerosvit. He has also served as Director of Photography on many film and documentary projects, including “Cargo,” “Who Gets to Call it Art?,” “Saints and Sinners,” “Khachaturian” and “Moment in Time” (Best Cinematography Award at New York Independent Film Festival).

Yan is co-founder of Persona Films, a New York-based film and commercial production company. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Film & Television Production from Boston University.

Chris Cooper - Founder of Twitch, NYC

A filmmaker and veteran post-production supervisor, Chris has lent his expertise to feature films, documentaries and commercials. One of the latest projects Chris co-produced, “Living in Emergency,” is short-listed for the 2010 Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Among Chris’s other credits are features and documentary projects such as “Cargo,” “The Casualty,” “Hartigan: Shattering Boundaries,” as well as numerous television commercials. Chris is a founder of Twitch, a post-production and editorial boutique based in Manhattan. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from University of California, Berkeley, and brings years of experience working in the financial sector.

Mark Roos - Composer

Mark Roos is the founder of Roos Compositions.Mark has been composing and producing original musical scores for over 10 years.Experience mediums include full-feature and documentary films, web-site scores, radio, television programs and music production.He has successfully demonstrated his ability to deliver high quality scores for companies such as PBS, Discovery Channel, History Channel, Microsoft, MSNBC, Iomega, 3Com, NuSkin, U.S. Air Force and Eastman-Kodak, to name a few.Independent film music funding is often a particularly unique animal, and Mark’s experience from a musical composer's point helps maximize musical score dollars to make them go as far as possible.He is the recipient of the Gold and Silver Awards from the Utah Broadcasters Association for the musical score of “Wing and A Prayer: The Saga of Utah Man”He also received a Rocky Mountain Emmy for the same musical score.He was awarded another Gold Award for his documentary film score “The Spear and the Lion: The British Zulu War.”He is a Utah ADDY Award recipient for the score “Iomega Zip Disc.”

Jessica Burstein

Jessica Burstein is an award-winning independent film, commercial and music video Writer/Director/Producer. She co-wrote/directed the award-winning short film Abbie Cancelled, which was an official selection of film festivals worldwide including Sundance Film Festival 2009 and winner of Best Short Film, Big Apple Film Festival, Tribeca Cinemas. She also co-wrote the feature script Abbie Cancelled (Working Title) which is currently in development with WME. Jessica wrote, directed, produced and starred in the award winning MFA thesis film Veronika’s Birthday which screened at numerous festivals worldwide receiving audience and critical praise including Best Direction and Performance at the Arizona International Film Festival and Best Student Film at the New Jersey International Film Festival. She co-wrote/directed four music videos, including the award-winning Corporate Lady, which won Best Music Video at the Backseat Film Festival in Philadelphia, and aired on MTVU.

Jessica is currently working as Sr. Writer/Producer/Director at Blue Room, a creative services agency in Union Square. She has worked on staff as a Writer/Director/Producer at MTV On Air Promos, winning Best of Cable Promax awards and special recognition in Digital Arts Magazine for her work writing and directing spots for MTV, CW and Sprint. Credits include launch promos for The Hills, Making The Band, TRL, My Super Sweet Sixteen, MTV VMAs and Movie Awards. Her commercial credits include MTV, VH1, Maybelline NY, RCN, T-mobile, Sunkist, Time Warner Cable and Energizer. Jessica was an Associate Producer for Off Ramp Films, producing docs for UNICEF and the ACLU. She is a former Co-President of CineWomen NY and has her MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts.

Brad Rego

Brad Rego has been working with video for over 18 years. He got his start, as many aspiring filmmakers did, with his father’s video camera and making short horror movies with his friend on VHS. Two things became abundantly clear, this was what he wanted to do, and film is really expensive. He worked with video for a number of years after that, looking for a foothold into the film world. All the while, graduating from VHS to VHS-C, on to Hi8, MiniDV, and now finally HD P2. Fortunately now video has become such an accepted medium that with the new HD P2 technology he can create the movies he wants to create, keep costs down, and give the quality product he needs to be successful. Willing to do whatever job he needs to bring his vision to life, he wears multiple hats in his productions, from Director and Producer, to Key Grip and Location Scout. He’ll even throw on a chef’s hat and cook up a meal for crafts services if it’s needed. It’s this passion and dedication that gets people excited about these projects.

Jeff Hipolito - Mongrel FX LLC

Graduating from the School of Hard Knocks, Jeff Hipolito has steadily been working to achieve his dream of producing a high quality CG Animated TV Series that will contain production values found in Hollywood animated features.

His group at Mongrel FX are currently developing a production pipeline using Open Source CG applications like Blender and GIMP. He couples this software with proprietary technologies like Motion Capture systems and is currently building a 3D Scanner from readily available plans found on the internet.